That was Sean Grande at the end of the Celtics radio broadcast, and Sean basically summed up the Celtics thumping of the Denver Nuggets 119-93. In a game that saw the Celtics walk into the locker room with a 77-38 halftime lead the Celtics completely dominated a sluggish Denver team. The “Big 3″ combined for 77 points, and Steve Bulpett has Doc Rivers saying that “They like each other and they’ve decided that they don’t need anything for them individually. They want to win for a team.” Jackie MacMullan says It’s been a long time since a Celtics team made the game look so incredibly easy. Denver coach George Karl is happy to see a team that’s not into a rebuilding mode. The Celtics could be sending two of their players the the Utah Flash of the NBA’s Developmental League. After all the talk of the Celtics acquiring Allen Iverson last year, Steve Buckley says that was all just a fantasy, but Pierce, Garnett, and Allen are for real.

Michael Silverman has Day 3 of the Mike Lowell talks producing nothing as Theo Epstein sat down in person with Lowell’s agents the Levinson brothers. Even though the Red Sox are concentrating on resigning Lowell they still sat through a Boras presentation, and as Nick Cafardo writes they are also listening to the Florida Marlins. Within this piece we hear that the San Diego Padres are letting teams know that Jake Peavy is available for the right price. Young studs Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester will begin the offseason conditioning program that Jonathan Papelbon followed last offseason.

Despite the reports of his retirement, Roger Clemens still says there may be a possibility of him playing next season. Wow, that’s shocking. With the Dominican Republic being hit very hard by Tropical Storm Noel, Pedro Martinez is asking for help. Joel Sherman has Hank Steinbrenner ready to make “significant offers” to keep some of the Yankees old guard in pinstripes.

After the success of the backyard grill sale, Manny is trying to free up some more space in his garage with this latest endeavor.

Q: Can you comment on the allegations that the Colts artificially piped-in crowd noise at the RCA Dome Sunday?

A: I’m not sure that (Patriots Head) Coach (Bill) Belichick had any comments about crowd noise. There were a number of comments made on what I would call disreputable websites (Monday) morning. We reacted to it because we felt like it was an affront to our fans and to the integrity of our organization. I will read you a statement we issued earlier Monday. It says the following: ‘In reference to questions regarding the audio transmission of yesterday’s game, please refer to the following statement from the NFL: CBS has informed us that the unusual audio moment heard by fans during the Patriots-Colts game was the result of tape feedback in the CBS production truck and was isolated to the CBS broadcast. It was in no way related to any sound within the stadium and could not be heard in the stadium. We close with the following sentence: We trust this will put an end to the ridiculous and unfounded accusations that the Colts artificially enhanced crowd noise at the RCA Dome in any way.

Q: Where do people come up with these ideas?

A: I have no idea. These are people who in many respects just have axes to grind and have no responsibility for what they write. They simply write innuendo and rumor and garbage and then it gets picked up in the mainstream media. The unfortunate part of blogs these days is that if something completely unfounded, something completely untrue – as is the case here – is in a blog, then someone in the mainstream media can pick it up and they use the excuse, ‘Well, it was in a blog. So it was news, and we have to follow it.’ Well, you can follow this until the cows come home and there’s nothing to find. We didn’t do anything

The problem with Bill’s comments is that they are a little off base. The reports about the crowd noise did not originate on some “blog”. The first report came from Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk which is a partner with NFL.com and Mike wrote the story in his weekly 10-Pack on The Sporting News website. Also, here in Boston, Michael Felger ended his weekly report card with this qoute “It felt artificially loud at the RCA Dome.” In addition to that, Jonathan Kraft made a formal complaint, so I’m not sure where Bill is getting the idea that this was just a “rumor” started by blogs.

Mike Reiss tells us that last year the Patriots used the bye week to take care of some contract issues. Mike looks at some of the contract issues facing the Patriots during this year’s bye week. Karen Guregian says that the Patriots are not interested in Corey Dillon because they already have a backup to Laurence Maroney. Writing in his blog, the wise one Bob Ryan gives us his take on Don Shula’s comments. Tony Massarotti has the Patriots taking on a new persona in their quest to go undefeated.

John Tomase writing in The Point After has his breakdown of Sunday’s win over the Colts. Within the Globe’s Notebook we hear Richard Seymour give credit to his teammates for helping with his blocked field goal on Sunday, also the Pats have an additional receiver on the roster. In the Herald’s Notebook a Patriot has won Offensive Player of the Week for their performance against the Colts.

I had originally intended on writing a column refuting some of Shula’s comments, especially the premise that this season’s accomplishments are “tainted”, but honestly this is beginning to get old. Every week there seems to be a new “comment” or “jab” thrown in the Patriots direction. Now, granted Shula is not a columnist or a former marginal offensive lineman, he’s a well respected NFL coach, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that Shula coached the ’72 Dolphins, the last team to go undefeated. Essentially what I’m saying is that his comments should be taken with a grain of salt.

Over at Fox Sports the NFL Czar says that Don Shula’s comments belong in the Hall of Shame.

Peter King makes the case as to why the cold weather will not effect the Colts in Foxboro.

A “backroom-working thug who stuck a shiv in Grady Little’s liver” who said that?

If you were to ask John Dennis he would say Pedro, but he would be wrong. That quote is from Gregg Doyel, a CBS Sports columnist, and its safe to say he is not a fan of Joe Torre.

In lieu of posting a “Video of the Day”, I’m going to give everyone reading this a “Tommy Point”…

Tonight on TV

The Celtics are sure to garner a majority of tonight’s attention, as they host Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson, when the 2-2 Denver Nuggets visit TD BankNorth Garden. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30PM. The game can be seen as always on CNSE.

In addition to the Celtics game tonight, the Bruins head up to Buffalo to take on the 5-7-1 Sabres. The game will begin at 7PM from the HSBC Arena and can be seen locally on NESN.

Curt Schilling made good on his word, returning to Boston for less than he could’ve gotten elsewhere on the free agent market. Schilling and the Red Sox agreed to a one-year $8 million dollar contract that also includes up to $6 million more in incentives.

Rob Bradford looks at the process that Schilling and the Sox went through to get this done. Nick Cafardo reports on Schilling, but also on whether a deal for Mike Lowell could be next. Jim Donaldson says that this deal is very good for both sides. Jeff Goldberg notes that the amount that Schilling gets paid will depend on what he puts in his mouth, not what comes out of it. Paul Jarvey has more on the return of Schilling. Joe Haggerty looks at Schilling taking a final year-long curtain call at Fenway.

Dan Shaughnessy says that love him or hate him, things are a lot more interesting with Schilling around, and this deal is good for both the Red Sox and Schilling. Tony Massarotti says that Schilling deserves credit for putting his money where his mouth is. Lenny Megliola says that the return of Curt seems like a good idea. Jon Couture says that this deal wasn’t about money for Schilling. Bill Burt says that this new deal could help Schilling’s Hall of Fame chances if he and the team does well. Joe McDonald looks at some of the incentives that cemented Schilling’s deal.

Michael Silverman has the Red Sox now turning their attention to Lowell. Silverman also reports on Kevin Youkilis, who came up as a third baseman, winning the Gold Glove at first base. Joe McDonald has more on the honor for Youkilis.

Karen Guregian has a look at a vintage performance Rodney Harrison, who was the best defensive player on the field Sunday. Mike Reiss notes that Mike Vrabel is on pace for a career season with the Patriots, after having been moved back to his outside linebacker position with the signing of Adalius Thomas. Lenny Megliola says that the Patriots are the ruling class of the NFL

John Tomase has legendary Dolphins coach Don Shula saying that the Patriots are tainted and if they have a perfect season, there should be an asterisk put next to it. Christopher Price also looks at the comments, with reaction from the Patriots. Robert Lee has the Patriots players dismissing the comments. David Heuschkel has at least one of Shula’s former players disagreeing with his stance on the Patriots.

Guregian says that the release of Marcellus Rivers could be a plus for Kelley Washington, who might’ve been feeling a crunch with two receivers set to come off the PUP list in the coming weeks.

Guregian’s notebook has Ellis Hobbs putting the shaky pass interference call in the Colts game behind him. Reiss’ notebook has the Patriots starting the clock on Troy Brown, in hopes of being able to activate him in the coming weeks.

Celtics/Bruins

With the Nuggets in town, Marc J. Spears looks back at last year’s hot trade rumor which had Allen Iverson coming to Boston. He notes that if that trade had gone through, there would likely be no Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen here this season. Steve Bulpett has a look at the Celtics having multiple scoring options at the end of games, something that was demonstrated on Sunday in Toronto. Jeff Clark looks at the Celtics getting used to a new feeling – being a target.

Kevin Paul Dupont has Patrice Bergeron “not doing that well” according to coach Claude Julien, after suffering the broken nose and concussion on Oct 27th. Rich Thompson has Glen Murray looking to add a little more power to the Bruins attack.

While the CBS might’ve taken the hit for the weird noise coming over the crowd audio channel during Sunday’s game, there is another source that now claims that the Colts artificially enhance the crowd noise at the RCA Dome.

Think people aren’t interested in a potential scandal involving someone other than the Patriots? That Youtube video on the crowd noise in the RCA Dome (posted here yesterday), was the third most highly viewed video on YouTube in the world yesterday.

Over on Patriots Daily, Christopher Price has Tony Dungy, Romeo Crennel and Bill Belichick gushing over Randy Moss and his unbelievable skills.

Michael Felger has his Patriots report card, and in the very last line of the article, he notes that “It felt artificially loud at the RCA Dome.” Ian M. Clark checks in with “C” marks for the linebackers and defensive backs in his report card. Eric McHugh also has his report card, which is a bit deeper than the first two. Hector Longo has the Patriots passing their midseason exam. He also trashes the Patriots defensive backs, making you think they are the least talented and worst group in the entire NFL. Douglas Flynn has the Patriots ready to continue their quest for perfection. Rich Garven says that running the table is much more than a possibility for this team.

Christopher L. Gasper looks at the noise issue in the RCA dome coupled with the fact that the Patriots radio equipment wasn’t working. John Tomase has CBS taking the hit and putting an end to audiogate. Shalise Manza Young has the soap opera continuing between the Patriots and Colts. David Heuschkel has the Patriots overcoming the noise and lack of radio to earn five days off during this bye week period. Guregian reports of the coach-to-quarterback system being down during the game.

Bob Ryan says that we can tell that Coach Belichick was happy with this game…he almost smiled. Bill Reynolds also focuses in on the Patriots coach, and how he’ll keep working right through the bye week to make his team better. Gerry Callahan has Tom Brady and the Patriots embracing their role as the new NFL bad boys. Lenny Megliola has Belichick already getting ready for the Bills, even with the bye week. Bob Halloran wonders what records Tom Brady might be chasing if he had a guy like Moss with him for his whole career.

Karen Guregian examines the key fourth quarter plays that allowed the Patriots to come back and defeat the Colts. David Brown also has the Patriots defense making the plays when it mattered the most. Robert Lee looks at how Randy Moss has been transformed in New England though hard work and dedication to football. Tomase has Belichick downplaying the chances of Corey Dillon returning to the Patriots. Lee notes that going the full 60 has been a theme of the Patriots this season.

Gasper’s notebook has the Patriots starting the clock on Troy Brown, meaning they’ll have 21 days to active him or put him on IR for the season. Guregian’s notebook has the Buffalo game being moved to prime time as the national audience can’t get enough of the hated Patriots.

Scott Van Voorhis has Thomas Kinkade ready to put his portrait of Fenway Park on sale starting tomorrow. Gaku Tashiro looks at the Red Sox World Series win from the Japanese side of things.

Cafardo’s notebook says that the Red Sox might be interested in a few Japanese relief pitchers. Silverman’s notebook has Pedro Martinez looking to pitch beyond his current contract, which runs out after the 2008 season.

Peter May has the new-look Celtics taking pride in their defense and having some high early rankings to show for it. Mark Murphy has James Posey’s hard work on his three point shot coming up big in the Toronto game. Jeff Howe has the Celtics taking some early strong steps towards restoring Celtics Pride.

Yesterday’s Colts/Patriots game on CBS earned an average national overnight household rating/share of 22.5/39, which was the highest-rated Sunday afternoon NFL regular-season game on any network in the metered markets since at least 1987 (as far back as CBS’s records). The previous high for a Sunday afternoon regular- season game was a 22.2/41 (Dallas-San Francisco; 11/10/96).

The New England-Indianapolis game on CBS was the highest-rated television program in 2007 in the metered markets since the Academy Awards (26.4/42) on 2/25/07.

Locally, this game was HUGE for WBZ-TV, pulling a Household 38.2 rating / 62 share

For much of the first three quarters of the game, it appeared that the Indianapolis Colts really did have the Patriots number. Their defense frustrated New England like no team has been able to do thus far this season. They got pressure on Tom Brady, forcing him to make quick throws, and even picked off a pair of his passes.

Trailing 20-10 in the fourth quarter, the Patriots put together two touchdown drives, and also shut down the Colts attack, emerging with a 24-20 victory, and moving to 9-0 on the season.

Now, if we’ll see if anything is made of crowdnoisegate. Real or not, you can be sure that if this happened at Gillette, the entire nation would be up in arms.

John Tomase says that the Patriots proved they can still pull off the fourth quarter heroics. Christopher L. Gasper has the Patriots storming back to edge the Colts by a nose in the battle of the unbeatens. Shalise Manza Young says this win resulted from a lot of hard work by the Patriots yesterday. David Heuschkel has the Patriots doing something that they had yet to do this season: win a close one. Douglas Flynn has the Patriots able to withstand Indy’s best shot yesterday. Rich Garven notes that we saw some old-time football in the RCA Dome yesterday. David Brown says that the Patriots record may have stayed perfect, but they didn’t play that way. Mark Farinella calls this one a “decidedly imperfect performance” for much of the game for the Patriots. Mike Lowe has the Patriots alone at the top this Monday morning.

Mike Reiss looks at the Patriots defensive strategy, which had them playing Rodney Harrison as a linebacker, shadowing Dallas Clark and limiting him to two catches for 15 yards. Michael Felger says that yesterday marked the official return of the Patriots as closers. Commenting on the lack of playing time for Adalius Thomas yesterday, Felger muses “Maybe Thomas would have been a factor on the worst play for the Pats defense all year: Addai’s 73-yard catch and run for a score at the end of the second quarter.”

The problem is, Thomas was on the field for that play. He ended up being the closest Patriot to Addai when the Colts running back hit the end zone. You can see it clearly in all replays that after Vrabel was unable to corral Addai, #96 is the only white shirt left near him as he scores. Reiss attempts to answer the question of Where was Adalius Thomas?

Christopher Price checks in with his 10 Things We Learned Yesterday. Steve Buckley says that the two rivals didn’t disappoint in their first meeting of the season. Dan Shaughnessy has Coach Belichick trying to downplay this win, which kept the Patriots perfect season going. Jim Donaldson says that the Patriots proved that they are the best so far this season. Ron Chimelis says that this win eclipsed any rout that the Patriots have had thus far. Lowe notes that this was a Sixty minute win for the Patriots.

Jeff Jacobs notes that the Patriots ability to finish off the Colts in the fourth should be seen as a great sign for this team. Karen Guregian says that the Pats didn’t play up to their usual high standards, but didn’t panic and got the job done in the end. Ian M. Clark has the Patriots coming up big when it mattered. Donaldson has Rosevelt Colvin making some huge plays in the fourth quarter in his hometown in front of family and friends. Heuschkel has Colvin able to enjoy this one, in contrast to the last time he was here. Farinella has the Patriots defense able to overcome their mistakes yesterday.

Gregory Lee Jr has Randy Moss featured as the Patriots go-to guy for much of the day yesterday, and the Colts unable to counter. Nat Newell has Tom Brady adding to his collection of fourth quarter comebacks. Young notes that while Brady might be getting a lot of support as the NFL Most Valuable Player, the MVP of the Patriots might be Moss. Garven notes that Brady struggled for three quarters yesterday before figuring things out late. Brown notes that the Patriots new offensive weapons made the difference yesterday. Farinella has the offense able to kick it into another gear when it mattered yesterday.

Bob Hohler has the Colts kicking themselves after this one. Check the coverage from the Hoosier State in the Indy Star. Donaldson looks at red-zone failures by the Colts, which had them kicking themselves.

Guregian’s notebook says that the decision to reduce the playing time of Thomas was strategic, not disciplinary. The Globe notebook has the Patriots setting a team record for yards penalized yesterday, but managing to overcome it. Young’s notebook has Brady setting the team mark for touchdown passes in a season. Garven’s notebook examines a number of facts and figures from yesterday. Brown’s notebook has the Patriots happy to eat some humble pie after that win. Lowe’s notebook has Tom Terrific at the right time.

Celtics

Those of you who tuned in for the end of the Celtics game yesterday, which was just before halftime of the Patriots game were unable to see Ray Allen’s game winning three pointer because the video feed of Comcast SportsNet was lost. Mike Gorman called the last plays of the game radio-style, but a bad moment nonetheless for CSN.

Matt Richardson on the BSMW Full Court press has a look at the smooth killer that is Ray Allen, as well as some thoughts on Kevin Garnett.

Coach Doc Rivers learned of the death of his father prior to the game, and thus assistant Tom Thibodeau took over on the sidelines for yesterday’s game. Murphy’s notebook and Spears’ notebook each have more on the situation.

Bruins

The Bruins fell to the Senators for the second straight game, losing at the Garden 2-1 yesterday. Fluto Shinzawa has the Bruins losing a third quarter lead. Bud Barth has the Bruins managing a point against the Senators. Rich Thompson has Tim Thomas allowing a man-down goal to allow the Senators to tie the game.

Thompson’s notebook has Chuck Kobasew doing all the scoring for the Bruins in the two games against the Senators. Shinzawa’s notebook has Petteri Nokelainen stepping in for the struggling David Krejci.

David Scott has Boston Sports Review ceasing publication, and also has a look at the glitch at the end of the Celtics game, as well as some Patriots game highlights.

This more of the Manny that we’ve been seeing since the playoffs started, and not the guy that has been portrayed in so many of the articles that have been written over the last 7 or so years.

If you went by what you read, you’d think the guy would have no clue about what Boston College, the Patriots or Celtics were doing. He talks about his “not the end of the world” statement in the Cleveland series, and yes, he said it to get the pressure off his teammates.

It seemed to have worked. A firestorm was created around Manny, lessening the attention on his teammates. The media went right along with his scheme on that one. He talks about his helmet coming off during game three…the play that drove Buck and McCarver crazy.

Sure, he doesn’t have profound things to say, but this clearly isn’t the guy that we’ve been told about.

David Ortiz was on with Conan O’Brien last night as well, here is his appearance:

John Molori says that this World Series has punched Curt Schilling’s ticket to the Hall of Fame.

Check today’s college football action with a Patriots slant over at Patriots Daily.

Browse the coverage of the opening night win by the Celtics over at CelticsLinks.com.

The Boston Celtics hope to put themselves back on both the local and NBA map starting tonight as they open their regular season against Gilbert Arenas and the Washington Wizards.

Trades for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, along with the free agent signings of James Posey and Eddie House to join Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo, Tony Allen and Kendrick Perkins have many proclaiming the Celtics as the favorites to come out of the East.

Tonight’s 8:00pm game can be seen on Comcast SportsNet (Formerly FSN New England) with the familiar duo of Mike Gorman and Tommy Heinsohn calling the game. Greg Dickerson is the sideline reporter, a role he will hold on both home and road games this season.

Back in the studio, Gary Tanguay and Donny Marshall will have a special one-hour edition of GMC Pre-Game Live, (the show will normally be a half hour) starting at 7:00pm.

Tonight’s game is also being broadcast nationally by ESPN.

Comcast SportsNet will again be showing all home games in high definition this season, road games will be in standard definition, but CSN officials say they’re working on getting road games shown in HD in the future.

The Celtics also play in Toronto against the Raptors at 2:30 on Sunday, (again on CSN) giving a nice lead-in to the 4:15 Patriots game on CBS.

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Boston College will again be featured on national television as their matchup with Florida State tomorrow night will be broadcast on ABC at 8:00pm.

On radio, the game can be heard on WEEI, which will also be broadcasting #1 ranked Ohio State’s game against #21 Wisconsin at noon.

So WEEI has the call of the top two college football teams in the country tomorrow.

————————————————-Patriots All Access this week includes:

A sit-down with Junior Seau and Rodney Harrison. After playing together in San Diego more than a decade ago, they are re-united in Foxboro with a common goal in mind.

Hall-of-Fame quarterback Troy Aikman sits down to give his opinion on the Pats-Colts game.

One-on-one with Vince Wilfork.

Head coach Bill Belichick addresses the hype for this week’s game, and gives us his take on how best to finish the game. He also shows us how Joseph Adai and Reggie Wayne have emerged as key performers for the Colts on the Belestrator.

Patriots All Access airs Saturday night at 7PM on WCVB-TV, and re-airs Sunday at 10AM.
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Can’t get enough Patriots/Colts? NFL Network is going almost wall-to-wall with material from these two teams, look at the these weekend schedules, and set your DVR’s accordingly:

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A certain disgraced sportswriter has decided to take a shot at this address in his relatively new blog. The topic is the comments made by Colts coach Tony Dungy when Spygate broke as compared to what he said this week.

The former-writer-turned-untrafficked-blogger wrote the following:

Those comments were later misrepresented by one local blogger, Bruce Allen, who wrote in his media blog, “The Projo notebook has more on Dungy slightly backing away from his earlier comments.’’

The blogger, known to be good at cut-and-paste, showed off that he can still do the Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V functions with that statement. That is exactly how I described the article in the Projo.

Within that article on the Providence Journal website, Shalise Manza Young wrote the following:

In a conference call yesterday, Dungy said he didn’t regret his comments, but backed away from them a bit, saying that was his opinion “at the time.”

My description of the article was based on the content of the article. This is a media blog, as was accurately pointed out. I fail to see how I personally misrepresented Dungy’s comments, since I only described what the writers were saying about them. If there is an issue, perhaps the actual writers should be contacted by the blogger.

What is clear to me is that this was simply a transparent attempt to draw me out, so that I would respond here, and perhaps even provide a link that would boost the traffic of the blog of the disgraced writer.

While I did respond here, there will be no link to the blog nor even a mention of the name. But if you came here looking for a rebuttal, there you have it.

—————————————————–Carlo Rotella in Boston Magazine has the story of the ugly breakup between “Flamboyant manager Norm Stone and sullen world champ John Ruiz” which is now headed to court.

The blog Post Game Heroes has a terrific breakdown of the how the Patriots offense owned the Redskins defense last Sunday.

Yesterday, Eric Wilbur went after Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star about how he reacted to several Colts blowout wins in ’04. Today Bob Kravitz responded to the piece, and also took at shot at Wilbur while on the Dennis and Callahan program this morning.

Pete Prisco says that the Patriots offense is the best of the modern era.

Tim Layden wonders how long the Patriots can stay fired up over SpyGate.

Fans in the Houston area are not going to get to watch the Patriots/Colts game because their local team is playing. (The SF Bay Area is ignoring the Raiders in favor of Colts/Patriots) David Barron has advice for those caught in this situation who want to see the game.

Joe Haggerty has John Farrell turning down managerial opportunities elsewhere to remain with the Red Sox.

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Some segments to look for on ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown:

Former NFL coach Bill Parcells, who led the Patriots to a Super Bowl appearance in 1997 and one of only four coaches last year who beat the Indianapolis Colts, will make his second Sunday NFL Countdown appearance of the season Sunday at 11 a.m. ET. Parcells will join Chris Berman, Mike Ditka, Keyshawn Johnson, Tom Jackson, Emmitt Smith and NFL insider Chris Mortensen to preview the Patriots (8-0) at Colts (7-0) game featuring the only remaining undefeated teams in the NFL.

The two-hour program will also preview all league games and will include reports from Indianapolis by Sal Paolantonio covering the Patriots and Ed Werder reporting on the Colts. Steve Young will contribute his weekly Sunday segment – “Young is Restless” – featuring his opinion on the week’s hottest topics. Other highlights:

Manning and Brady
While the Pats at Colts matchup will determine which undefeated team is better, the game will also answer which quarterback – Peyton Manning vs. Tom Brady – is better? Reporter Greg Garber turns to Hall of Fame quarterbacks Warren Moon, Jim Kelly and Steve Young to break down how both quarterbacks compare to one another.

TJ’s Tale of the Tape
Countdown’s Jackson answers the tough questions about the Patriots and Colts – who has the edge in all the key areas of the game in an old-school “tale of the tape” that compares the two unbeaten teams.

Ditka and Parcells on Patriots-Colts Coaching Chess Match
Ditka and Parcells will analyze the coaching moves and countermoves that will take place between Bill Belichick and Tony Dungy during the Patriots-Colts match-up.

Demo: Patriots/Colts & “The Slot”
The Patriots and Colts offenses make great use of their receivers in the “slot” positions. Parcells leads the Countdown analysts in demonstrating how both teams use the “slot” receiver and how both defense need to play against the “slot.”

Soundtracks: 2006 AFC Championship Game – Patriots vs. Colts
In ‘Soundtracks,’ Countdown takes fans inside the sights and sounds of last season’s AFC Championship game when Peyton Manning and the Colts overcame a 21-3 deficit to defeat the Patriots and reach the Super Bowl.

Friday is at last here in what has been a pretty amazing week, both in the sports world and here at BSMW. It continues tonight with the rebuilt Celtics making their debut, tomorrow with Boston College taking on Florida State and Sunday with Patriots/Colts.

Michael Felger says that this game represents A chance for atonement for the Patriots, who made some bad decisions and plays in the AFC title game that they would like to make up for. Christopher L. Gasper looks at running backs Laurence Maroney and Joseph Addai, and the debate over which one is better and who should’ve been chosen first. Shalise Manza Young says that this game comes down to the two best QB’s in the game. David Heuschkel looks at whether Rodney Harrison will be able to make a difference against Dallas Clark. Mark Farinella has Harrison all business in the locker room yesterday. Christopher Price has Belichick and the Patriots surprisingly loose yesterday.

Robert Lee has a look at whether the Patriots new receivers will be able to cause problems for the Colts. Jennifer Toland says that the Colts are well aware of what Randy Moss can do. Karen Guregian has Stephen Gostkowski ready to answer the call should he be called upon to make a kick in a crucial spot. She also has Laurence Maroney hoping that Tom Brady doesn’t rush for two touchdowns again this weekend. Jeff Howe looks at Brady’s efforts to surpass Manning in the single season TD record.

Bob Hohler has a piece on Reggie Wayne, who grew up as a Patriots fan, and is now Peyton Manning’s main go-to guy. Karen Guregian has a piece on tight end Dallas Clark and the threat he poses to the Patriots this Sunday. Chris Kennedy has the Colts becoming a more physical team on defense. David Brown says that while the Colts pass defense is much-improved, they’re still not that great against the run.

The Globe notebook has the Patriots glad that they’ll have Rodney Harrison on the field for this game. Guregian’s notebook has Harrison won over by Randy Moss and how he has been in the Patriots locker room. Lee’s notebook has Harrison saying that he’s nearly back to full strength. Toland’s notebook has Harrison anxious to get out on the field Sunday. Farinella’s notebook has Bill Belichick talking about playing in the RCA dome. I’m not sure where Farinella feels Belichick provided a “smidgeon” of bulletin board material with his comments.

Kevin Henkin over on the BSMW Full Court Press has a Val Halen-themed Celtics preview.

Steve Bulpett has Paul Pierce’s loyalty to the Celtics finally being rewarded. Jeff Clark offers a thumbnail look at the new Celtics. Bill Doyle looks at what a difference a year has made for the Celtics. Gerry Callahan has Danny Ainge’s persistence getting the Celtics back into the position of contenders. Tim Weisberg has the Celtics believing in the power of three. Scott Souza has Paul Pierce being cautiously optimistic about the potential of this team.

Mark Murphy says that tonight is the Celtics first chance to starting proving that they’re worthy of the hype. Ben Larsen over at Parquet Pride offers some thoughts on tonight’s opener. Murphy has Kevin Garnett happy to be able to share the spotlight. Bulpett has Ray Allen happy with what he has seen thus far of his new team and the excitement around it. Weisberg has the Celtics counting heavily on second year point guard Rajon Rondo to get the trio the ball in the right spots.

Marc J. Spears has the Celtics “other” players knowing that they’ll need to play a large role for this team. Dan Ventura says that a lot of the Celtics success will depend on the supporting cast. Paul Doyle examines whether this team is going to have what it takes to contend for a title. Spears’ notebook has Sam Cassell relating to what the Celtics are going to go through with their three stars.

David Scott looks at Boston being subject to nonstop “gate” scandals and under attack as the most despised sports city in the country.

The Bruins took a 4-3 OT victory over the Sabres last night. Check in on the coverage at BruinsLinks.com

The Red Sox are already trying to figure out who will be here and who won’t be when opening day 2008 rolls around. Check out the stories on RedSoxLinks.com. Also be sure to check out Jerry Beach‘s piece about the Sox of ’05 and ’06 who missed out on the Championship fun.